Pollen assemblage

Fig. 4.2. Paleotemperature change in Tertiary age estimated from pollen assemblages (modified after Yamanoi, 1993).

Studied considerably via 8 0 of foraminifera, biobotanical analyses, marine molluscs, and pollen assemblage. 

Pollen assemblage analysis indicated that temperature at middle Miocene age was high and after that it decreased rapidly (Fig. 4.2) (Yamanoi, 1993). Temperature from the middle Miocene to present time decreased gradually, however it increased from 4 to 3 Ma and then decreased (Fig. 4.2) (Yamanoi, 1993). 

Palynological Investigations. All the zones petrographically delimited were macerated for the study of spore and pollen assemblages. They were macerated using Schulze s solution and then treated with 7% potassium hydroxide. The spores and pollen were mounted in glvcerol jelly The spore and... 

Other plant communities (e.g. seasonally flooded Myrtaceae forests. Araucaria forests) subsequently dominated the Salitre site (i.e. after 33,(XX) yr BP) until the early Holocene (8500 carbon-14 yr BP [9550 cal yr BP]) when pollen assemblages containing Tabebuia, Zanthoxylum, Alchomea and Palmae point to renewed development of SDTF (Ledru, 1993). After a short-term expansion of herbaceous taxa c.5500 carbon-14 yr BP (63(X) cal yr BP), arboreal pollen taxa consistent with SDTF once again increase c.4350 carbon-14 yr BP (4850 cal yr BP). 

From the assemblages of fossil pollen, palynologists make inferences about the types of forests or other plant communities that may have occurred in the local environment. These interpretations must be made carefully, however, because species are not represented in the pollen record in ways that directly reflect their abundance as mature plants. For example, pollen of wind-pollinated species is relatively abundant in lake sediments, whereas species that are insect pollinated are not well... 

Ftuabee MJ, Taylor TN, Taylor EL (1989) Pollen and spore assemblages from the Falla Formation (Upper Triassic), central Transantarctic Mounteiins, Antarctica. Rev Palaeobot Palynology 61 101—138... 

---